Ms Teresa Heeney:

Thank you, Chairman. I thank Senator McGreehan for her question on the drop off. Internationally, there is, indeed, some evidence that there is a challenge in retaining the numbers of childminders working in the profession but these countries have regulations and it is not necessarily about regulation. It is about that workforce wanting to work in a sector that is professional and supportive because that is how they see themselves.

I would take the opportunity to say that we cannot wait for 30 years for these regulations. There are more children in childminders' homes today than there are in any centre in the country and we need to support those childminders with that huge responsibility.

The Senator is correct. Although I do not have the information, I would imagine that the workforce is probably 99.9% female. These are women who in the main probably do not have access to pensions and we would need to be supporting that workforce as well as professional mothers of the early years sector.

It is also important to say these regulations have not been written. They have not started writing these regulations. They do not know what the inspection regime will look like. The professionals who are generally around this table have the wherewithal to make sure that they are measured and suitable and that we do not see family homes becoming otherwise because we do not want parents not having access to the childminding settings that they are choosing today in the thousands.